"We Are Just Starting"

Turkey's Wise People Delegation gathered at Dolmabahce Palace last night, having a 5-hour long meeting on the ongoing peace process with the participation of PM Erdoğan.

Only Fadime Özkan, Star newspaper columnist, have not attended the meeting as she was out of the country. Orhan Gencebay, musician, became the first to leave the meeting.

Around 11pm local time, the meeting ended with no statement from the government wing. Wise people were awarded with neck ties, scarfs and CDs.

According to the information provided by wise people, the commission will function as follows:  

* The commission will work independently and will not represent neither the government nor AKP. PM Erdoğan underlined this.  

* Each region will determine its own working methods, essentials, and stakeholder meeting lists.

* The commission will submit a report twice a month. The working period has been extended to two months from one month.

* The reports will be forwarded to the government. From the input, the government willform a road map.

Some of the highlights from the meeting included:

* The process will enroll along with the constitution drafting, PM Erdoğan said. He also told that they will meet CHP and BDP on the constitution and take the draft to referendum.

* 22 delegates spoke at the meeting. They mostly asked questions on how the process will unfold.

* PM Erdoğan shared the results of a recent poll regarding the support on the peace process with people from eastern regions topping the list (70 percent). The most critical region turned out to be Mediterranean with 40 percent.  

* Delegates will promote the process from their point of view. Artists will promote from an artistic point of view, academicians will do from a scientific point of view.

* Addressing criticism on the chairperson-secretary conundrum, PM said each region group can discuss the issue on their own.  

Delegates' first impressions

Hülya Koçyiğit (Actress): I am here to stop mothers' crying. Before everything, I am a mother.

Baskın Oran (Academician): The region group meetings will determine how they will function. We will decide on a variety of issues including logistics, stakeholder assessment, etc. We have exchanged our business cards. PM said we are not representing anybody. I was relieved to hear that. We have just started.  

Fuat Keyman (Academician): The questions were regarding how the process would unfold. I find the meeting positive. We are hoping to arrive to a productive point in meeting by the end of next two months.

Kadir İnanır (Actor): I can summarize a 5 hour long meeting in one minute.

Ahmet Gündoğdu (Memur-Sen Chair) : Everybody agrees that peace should be restored. There are different perspectives on how to do it. This is very normal.

Hasan Karakaya (Yeni Akit Newspaper Editor-in-Chief): We have been criticized for what we have published. We will bury our axes for a while.

Can Paker (TESEV Board Member): We have just begun the process, I have no details to share with you.  

Celalettin Can (78's Generation Foundation): We have told PM that if we want to walk toward peace, it has to be with a peaceful language. But this can't be possible with the words terror and terrorist. He said that this discourse is related to laws and regulations. I spoke about how we need to form justice and truth commissions to face the past event in Diyarbakır Prison so that we can tell the west about what's going on in the east. (NV)